Thursday, January 21, 2010

I want to start hosting a monthly get-together for local bloggers - everyone brings something to eat, we get together, we talk, we meet new people, we blogger speed-date (MAYBE.) (MAYBE THE SPEED DATING IS TOO NERDY, I HAVE NOT DECIDED), we get our friendship thing on. We bring the kids if necessary.

(And also we do a service project.)

(See how I'm sneaking in the service part? SNEAKY)

It's true though. I'm forming a BRAND NEW blogger clique. The Utah Bloggers Who Like To Eat and Do Painless Service clique. (We're better than most of the other blogger cliques because we also get to feel legitimately self righteous. WOOT!)

I want my friends and family who don't blog to feel welcome though, so I will probably call it the Not Necessarily Just Utah Bloggers But Also Real Life Friends Who Are Not Bloggers Plus Random Facebook Friends and Relatives Who Like to Eat and Do Painless Service clique. (CATCHY!)

It will be TOTALLY painless service, I promise. You will barely even know you are doing it. In fact, you will probably drive home thinking, "Wow, what a fun get-together, I just met the most awesome, friendly, hilarious women who will probably be my FRIENDS FOR LIFE, to the extent that I will NEVER BE LONELY AGAIN, and I will ALWAYS HAVE COMMENTS ON MY BLOG, and then - then - I think there was something else we did, but I can't even remember what it was because of all the FUN FUN FUN we were having."

Like that.

Seriously, did you know that serving with other women is an amazing way to make friends? IT IS! Especially with ME. Not only because I will love you instantly for coming, but also because I have VERY LOW FRIENDSHIP STANDARDS.

(I realize this may not actually be a draw. I'm just saying. You'll have at least ONE friend there, right? And if you come and you are feeling initially uncomfortable, just come hang out with me, I'm the acknowledged leader of the socially awkward.)

The first get-together (and I realize saying "get-together" repeatedly sounds extraordinarily dorky, but "meeting" sounds too clinical and "event" sounds too ridiculous and unfortunately my brain is currently suffering from total-synonym-fail) is going to be in February, time/date/location to be announced once I get a feel for whether or not there will be one hundred of us or three.

If you think you'd be interested in coming, (AND YOU SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN COMING) (ALONG WITH YOUR FRIENDS) (AND RELATIVES) please let me know in the comments or via email (or Facebook or Twitter or carrier pigeon or doorbell ditching, etc., etc.) so I can start to figure out how many people we're talking about.

In the meantime, my friend Kalli dreamed up a wonderful way for us all to help with Haiti. She's hosting a quilting bee THIS MONDAY in American Fork. I'll just quote from the post on her blog:

"Did you know that within 48 hours of the quake, LDS Humanitarian Services and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had commissioned two planes loaded with 160,000 lbs of relief supplies with additional supplies to be delivered via truck through the Dominican Republic?

My friend Melanie and I got in touch with LDS Humanitarian Services to ask how we could help, turns out their greatest need at this time is full size quilts.

This is where you come in. We need your help. Let's help an organization so busy actually helping those we only wish we could.

On Monday, January 25th we will be hosting a quilting bee at a church in American Fork.

Doesn't matter if you can't sew, your help can be used cutting, ironing, tying or somewhere else. I know this is a somewhat inconvenient time, but I am begging you to do what you can to make it work. Even if you can only stay an hour, or a half hour, come on your lunch break, we need you!

Bring your kids, mine will be there going batty because that's smack in the middle of his nap time. Sweet!

We are doing this! Come and do it with us. Here's how you can help."

You should come! We'll meet. We'll be friends. We'll pretend that we know how to tie quilts and do things with batting. And you'll meet Kalli, who is hilarious and wonderful and one of the very few bloggers I know who looks just like her picture. (And I am including myself in that statement.)

Who We Are and How To Join Us

Hi there! Welcome to the home of the Service Soapbox Bloggers.We work together to use our blogs as a force for good in the world - and we do a little blog friendshipping and networking while we're at it. We plan charitable events benefiting a variety of worthy causes. Kind of like an internet based Junior League - but without the snob factor or wealth. All of our projects have virtual components - so you definitely don't need to live in Utah to participate.

To get involved in Service Soapbox enter your name in the MckLinky below. If you have any questions, please contact Sue at suelikestoblogandwastetime at gmail dot com or Becca at bluecricketdesign at gmail dot com.